Last night was my FOURTH time seeing Coldplay live. They are so worth it, every single time. Chris Martin is always so high-energy and has a way of interacting with the crowd in a way that even when you’re surrounded by 60,000 people, you still feel like it’s just you and him, while also drawing you into a crowd fuelled with nothing but positive vibes.

I don’t know what it is about Coldplay shows that are able to uplift my spirits. Maybe it’s all the glitter, the confetti, the smile plastered on Chris Martin’s face throughout the night. We had close seats but since they were on the floor, me and my short friends could barely see the stage. That didn’t matter though. Everyone in our section was dancing the whole time and jumping up and down and belting out our favourite lyrics. Thankfully, the Dome was open which gave us the chance to point to the sky during Yellow (look at the stars, see how they shine for you) and Sky Full of Stars (such a heavenly viiiiiew).

Highlights include:

shout out to the CNN Tower

The Toronto song Chris Martin sang which included shout outs to Drake and the Blue Jays

Dancing my ass off during Hymn for the Weekend, Sky Full of Stars, Viva la Vida

When Chris Martin choked on confetti at the start of Fix You and had to start over

Christ Martin thanking the crowd for braving the crowds, lines, commute, expensive concert tickets to show up. Idk why but just having your favourite singer acknowledge the tough parts of attending a concert make him feel down-to-earth and makes it all worth it.

Hopefully, my boss isn’t reading this. If she is, she’ll know why I missed work for the past few days.

I went to two concerts in a row and now I’m deathly sick. Obviously I’m too old for this. But I have zero regrets because it was worth it.

Night 1: Hall & Oates with Tears for Fears

Two of my favourite bands in the same night? Heck yes!! I’ve honestly never been able to see either of these bands because the only times they’ve recently been in Toronto, they’ve played up in Casino Rama, and after almost dying in a tornado on my way to a show to see the Beach Boys play there in 2009, I am so over Casino Rama. Also, I’ve never had a car. Also, never known anyone who would want to drive up there with me to see them. But then, thankfully, they both decided to tour together!

The night started with Tears for Fears. The band was great. They played all of my favourite songs except for Elemental, but that’s okay. Of course everyone went nuts for Shout and Mad World.

To be honest, I only became a fan of theirs after seeing this video and realizing it was filmed at the University of Toronto.

I just found this version students remade of the video, and it’s hilarious!

Anyways, a lot of their songs have really stuck with me through the year. The band was really into it and you could see they were having a good time on stage. Roland and Curt still have solid vocals. Funniest part was when they messed up the lyrics to one of the songs. It happens to the best!

Then it was time for Hall & Oates.

They were great but they basically sang all my fave songs at the beginning and launched into saxophone medleys of their songs and I was a bit bored in the middle when they sang songs I wasn’t familiar with.

Still worth seeing them, though!

Night 2: New Kids on the Block

I will confess: when they announced the tour I wasn’t too keen on attending. I’ve seen them and I’ve seen them and I’ve seen them. Sure, they always put on a good show, but I’m starting to get NKOTB fatigue. But then my sister wanted tickets for her birthday, so we ended up going.

Of course, it was worth it. Donnie Wahlberg standing on a flaming piano while singing Cover Girl was one of the best performances of that song I’ve ever seen!

My favourite part was the pure 80s medley of Stop It Girl and Popsicle. Those were the first few songs I remember listening to and it was great to hear them live!

The next day I woke up with a sore throat. I thought it was from the excessive screaming and headed into work, but halfway through the day realized it was a full on cold. I’ve been in bed ever since, nursing a nasty cold. Obviously people over the age of 30 shouldn’t go to two concerts in a row.

Does that mean I’ll never do it again? Of course not! It was definitely worth it.

So apparently today is the 25th anniversary of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Go ahead, feel old.

I was in Grade 5 when this song was hugely popular. My biggest memory was when my class participated in the school’s talent show. Our teacher wanted us to do a Beauty and the Beast themed dance. Instead, we convinced him to let us dance on stage to Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit.

It’s amazing, but I still remember the entire dance sequence. I have no memory of who choreographed the whole thing, but it was pretty awesome. I guess this was before digital cameras, so it’s not up on Youtube anywhere.

Back then, our school principal was SUPER STRICT and from the Old Country, and he didn’t allow us to wear jeans to school on non-uniform days, which added up to what, 10 days a year. So almost nobody in my class owned jeans. For our dance, we all had to wear the same outfit of a baggy white tee and ripped jeans.

But none of us owned jeans!!!

How weird is that? Looking back, I sure had a weird childhood.

We had to go around from class to class, begging people to let us borrow their jeans.

It was the best dance out of the entire show.

My other hilarious memory relating to this song?

There was, strangely enough, another girl named Zoriana in my school. She had a journal filled with her obsession about Kurt Cobain. One day, she forgot it on the subway. Some guys from my school found it and thought it was mine. I came in to school and they’d plastered the pages all over my locker, complete with cartoon kisses all over the pages.